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Problem with media keys for the Macbook Pro (early 2008)?

I just converted myself into a Mac user less than a week ago, and got myself a Macbook Pro.
Everything is fantabulous, but today, when I started up my MBP to play my itunes, I noticed my media keys aren't responding! I've checked my system preferences > keyboard & mouse settings but nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. All my other function keys work, it's just the F7-F9 keys that don't work. They were working the few days before too.

I've tried to google information about it, but most search results were in reference to the media keys of a separate keyboard. I tried searching the discussion forums about it, but I'm pretty sure there were no questions about the media keys? (either that, or I just didn't see it, cause I'm pretty sure other people must have encountered my same situation...)

Does anyone know what I can do? 😟


*Oh, one more thing. I've been putting my MBP to "sleep" instead of shutting it down at night... would that have something to do with the media keys malfunctioning? I got this MBP on 10/29/08, but didn't set it up until 10/30/08. The only time I had it "shut down" was 11/1/08. All other times I've been putting it to sleep. Is this bad for the computer?

Macbook Pro 2008)

Posted on Nov 2, 2008 4:14 PM

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Posted on Nov 2, 2008 5:49 PM

Hi Lehautaemour,

Welcome to the fold! First off, putting your MacBook Pro to sleep is not bad at all! Personally, I shut my MacBook Pro down when I am finished, but it is just a personal preference. We need more info to answer your questions about the media keys. Do any of the keys work (Expose, Keyboard backlight, brightness, volume, mute)? The Play, Pause, and skip keys only do something if iTunes (or Front Row) is running. Try launching iTunes or Front Row and then try the keys. If they still don't work, try holding down the fn key and then pressing one. Post back with your results and we can go from there. Good luck!

Rich S.
3 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Nov 2, 2008 5:49 PM in response to lehauteamour

Hi Lehautaemour,

Welcome to the fold! First off, putting your MacBook Pro to sleep is not bad at all! Personally, I shut my MacBook Pro down when I am finished, but it is just a personal preference. We need more info to answer your questions about the media keys. Do any of the keys work (Expose, Keyboard backlight, brightness, volume, mute)? The Play, Pause, and skip keys only do something if iTunes (or Front Row) is running. Try launching iTunes or Front Row and then try the keys. If they still don't work, try holding down the fn key and then pressing one. Post back with your results and we can go from there. Good luck!

Rich S.

Nov 2, 2008 6:26 PM in response to LinkRS

LinkRS,

Thank you for the welcome, and your advice! 🙂
Well, all the other keys work. But to clear it up some more, before I turned my MBP off, I tried holding the "fn" key with the media keys - didn't work!
But besides that...right after I posted this bulletin requesting for help, I shut down my MBP and let it rest for about 2 hours, turned it on just a few moments ago, and it seems like the buttons are working now! I opened up Front Row & iTunes, and it seems like the media keys are working perfectly fine now....

Of course, I'm relieved, but this also makes me a bit peeved, cause I want to know why my MBP did that! :/ If anyone knows why, or has an idea of maybe why this happens, I'd love to hear it!

Nov 3, 2008 8:32 PM in response to lehauteamour

Hi Lehauteamour,

I am glad that your MBP is working normally again. Contrary to common belief, Macs are computers, and have glitches too. It seems that a common "quick-fix" for Macs, is to do just what you did, shut it down, and turn it back on. It seems that there are quite a few Mac users that never shut their Mac down, and when a problem occurs, it never dawns on them to try a power-cycle. However, there is a hardware device used by Macs called a System Management Control (SMC) that stores boot information, and power settings. Sometimes this information becomes corrupted, and you have to reset the SMC. If you read about this fix, it is analogous to resetting the CMOS on a standard PC. As a fellow Windows refugee, I would recommend the following book to aid you in your switch:

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596514129/?CMP=ILC-MMh0me

I got this book when I first switched, and found it invaluable. Good luck!

Rich S.

Problem with media keys for the Macbook Pro (early 2008)?

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